abortion travel

In May, Irish voters backed a proposal to amend a constitutional provision which placed a ban on abortion in most cases. But what impact is the referendum result likely to have on the Irish abortion rate in the coming years? Eoin Flaherty explains that the circumstances which drive marriage, divorce, and abortion rates are complex and are not susceptible to short-term changes in social policy. As such, it is too simplistic to assume that a change in the law will necessarily result in a direct increase in the number of abortions being carried out.

Before going to the polls on 25 May, those opposed to liberalising Ireland’s abortion laws claimed the results of a successful repeal would be dire. One report on likely future scenarios from the ‘LoveBoth’ campaign, predicted an extra 5,300 abortions per year post-repeal. Due to its constitutional prohibition on abortion, Ireland does not keep reliable data on those who travel to procedure terminations, but of those who do, we are certain the majority travel to the UK. In 2017, a total of 3,092 terminations were procured by Irish women, constituting 64% of all terminations sought in England and Wales by non-residents.

Ireland’s abortion battle shows we must never let the fundamentalists win
Women have paid a terrible price for a law that gives the unborn the same rights as mothers

Suzanne Moore
Thu 8 Mar 2018

It’s a bugger when your flight is cancelled. It’s worse, I imagine, if you’re having to travel to another country to have an abortion. Time and money matter. When I saw that the recent snow had grounded flights from Ireland I immediately thought of this. Maybe I have never forgotten the time I sat next to an anxious young woman on a flight from Dublin who began to tell me why she was coming to London but couldn’t finish her sentences. She was just so alone that I wanted to go to the clinic with her. In the old days I remember seeing such women on the ferries.

Irish women have abortions, you see – they just don’t have them in their own country. Currently about nine women a day travel to the UK for terminations. Irish society knows of this export of hypocrisy, yet it continues to export its responsibility for human rights. Women pay the price.

300 to 400 Maltese women go abroad for an abortion each year - AD chairperson

Rebecca Iversen
Sunday 4 February 2018

Approximately 300 to 400 Maltese women go abroad to have an abortion each year, according to AD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo.

Speaking during an activity organized by the Malta Unborn Child Movement, Cacopardo said official statistics only exist for the UK. Annual medical reports in the UK show that some 60 Maltese women a year have an abortion performed in that country. These numbers, however, do not include abortions performed in Italy (mainly Catania, Rome and Milan but also other locations) as well as Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and others to obtain an abortion.

Irish People Flying Home For Christmas Are Sharing An Important Message About Abortion

Luggage tags that read "healthcare not airfare" aim to highlight the fact that every year, thousands of women travel from Ireland and Northern Ireland to Britain to get abortions.
Posted on December 21, 2017
Laura Silver, BuzzFeed News Reporter

Irish people travelling home for Christmas are labelling their suitcases with "healthcare not airfare" luggage tags to highlight the number of women who travel to Britain for an abortion, which is illegal in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Many people have been sharing pictures of their luggage tags on social media using the hashtag "Choice4Xmas".

Abortion is still illegal in this country
Fifty years after the Abortion Act, women are still dying from being denied basic services, write activists from Feminist Fightback

November 15, 2017

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Abortion Act, activists from Feminist Fightback found ourselves dressed as flight attendants, transforming the London Overground into the cabin of an Abortion Airlines Boeing 67. We distributed our own version of inflight safety cards and presented a special inflight safety announcement, advising passengers that ‘the exits…lead to an unsafe backstreet abortion and possible death…please assume the brace position for the duration of this Abortion Airlines flight”. We were met with whoops and cheers from passengers who, like us, are appalled by the fact that the Act still does not extend to the North of Ireland and that at least two people per day have to board a flight to travel to England to terminate a pregnancy. Fifty years on from the Abortion Act there are still people living in the UK denied this basic human right. This includes many migrants who, as NHS charges are introduced and health workers legally obligated to check immigration status, are deterred from accessing both abortion and maternity services.

New Leader Of Green Party Against Abortion But In Favour Of Healthy Debate

'Nothing is ever static in politics'
Tim Diacono
20th September, 2017

In a relatively radical stance for Maltese politics, the new leader of green party Alternattiva Demokratika has said a national debate on abortion would be healthy for society... even though he is personally against its introduction.

Malta has the most restrictive abortion laws in the world but several Maltese women travel abroad to get an abortion every year. Despite the island's small population, official statistics show the number of Maltese women who travelled to the UK for an abortion in 2015 was the fifth highest in the world.

To understand abortion travel, you have to be thereThe ‘Not At Home’ exhibition is an attempt to recreate the experience of the 170,000 Irish women who have travelled abroad for abortions

Róisín Ingle
Aug 28, 2017

Last year theatre makers Grace Dyas and Emma Fraser came to me with a big idea. They had plans to recreate the experience of the just over 170,000 Irish women who over the past few decades have had to travel out of Ireland for safe abortion services. It would be a “durational art installation” open to the public. It would feature video and live performances. There was talk of “soundscapes”. I did not immediately fall in love with the big idea.

Ireland’s abortion regime to be scrutinised by British politicians
Inquiry will focus on issues relating to women travelling from Ireland to Britain

July 18, 2017
Mary Minihan

A fresh inquiry into Ireland’s abortion regime will be undertaken by a group of British and Irish politicians.

A committee of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, chaired by former Northern Ireland Office minister Lord Alfred Dubs, will focus on issues relating to women travelling from Ireland to Britain to seek terminations.

Lord Dubs announced the inquiry into the “cross-jurisdictional” implications of abortion policy at the assembly meeting in Kilkenny on Tuesday.